


Maybe We're Bent and Broken

by enbyboiwonder



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Episode: s03e06 The Mermaid of the Abyss!, I broke my own damn heart writing this, M/M, Unrequited Love, also rewatching that scene on loop, the little mermaid parallels are fucking killing me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29832651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbyboiwonder/pseuds/enbyboiwonder
Summary: Hiyori is the Little Mermaid, in love with the Prince who will never truly see him.
Relationships: Kirishima Ikuya/Tono Hiyori
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Maybe We're Bent and Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I still have mixed feelings about Hiyori, he's not exactly a healthy person and neither is his relationship with Ikuya, but I definitely feel for him. The way they both see themselves as the Little Mermaid but for different reasons is giving me so many feelings.
> 
> Anyway, I got this idea partway through that playground scene (during those six seconds where they stare at each other at the foot of the slide before the confrontational music starts playing), and it wouldn't let me go. No I have not watched past this ep as of posting this. Title comes from Switchfoot's [Meant to Live](https://youtu.be/S6zEEuwC64o) because I was listening to it on repeat at the time.

Hiyori can feel his heart breaking as he listens to his friend's low voice, listens to him put himself down like that as if he can't hear a single thing Hiyori says. It's so unfair that Ikuya feels this way, because he's amazing, he's always been—he's not—

"You're wrong! Ikuya, you're not the little mermaid—"

"I can't be strong like Haru," Ikuya continues with a tiny, self-deprecating laugh that's like a knife through the heart.

He grits his teeth, lurching forward to grab Ikuya's wrist and tug him down to the bottom of the slide.

_—you're the prince—_

Amber eyes blink up at him, widening slightly in surprise. He braces his full weight against the slide, quelling the shaking in his arms, as he stares down at Ikuya over the tops of his glasses, jaw clenched in frustration. Why can't he just get through to him? Ikuya is— If Nanase hadn't— _He's_ the one who—

He can't get his voice to work through the tightness in his chest, around his throat, and he finds himself moving, surging forward, without a second thought.

_—and I'm the little mermaid who's in love with you—_

Ikuya goes still under him. Though he doesn't do anything to push him away, he doesn't kiss back, either, just lets it happen. Hiyori's fingers curl tight around the sides of the slide, the lip biting into his palms, and he kisses him harder, pouring all his overflowing feelings for Ikuya into it, trying to get a reaction, acknowledgement—anything—

_—and would do anything for you—_

Ikuya's watching him quietly when he breaks the kiss, his expression distant as if Hiyori's a stranger and not his best friend of the past half a decade, and that, more than anything, cuts through him: that he should have known. Pressing the back of his wrist to his mouth, he pushes to his feet and stumbles back a couple steps, his heels sinking into the sand, chest heaving. Ikuya's eyes follow his movements, that nonplussed expression still creasing his brows.

_—and who you'll never really see._

His breath chokes out of him, hand pressed hard enough against his mouth that he feels his teeth bite into his skin as his feet take him another few faltering steps backward. Hiyori averts his eyes and mumbles out a _Sorry_ before turning on his heel and fleeing from the park, trying to keep a grip on his heart that feels as if it will dissolve into seafoam at any moment.

**Author's Note:**

> *casually shovels in more Little Mermaid references while pretending I'm not on the verge of tears*
> 
> This might have come off as romanticizing (might be because of all the extra Little Mermaid references I hadn't intended to include, whoops), but I don't actually feel that way. That the little mermaid doesn't get the prince is definitely not the only reason that was a bad idea, this is just far too short to deal with any of those, and also I just really needed to get this out.


End file.
